Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-11-05
A DRUNKEN CAPTAIN
BLAMED FOR THE HORRIBLE DISASTER OF
THKVERN0N.
Stories Told By Passengers on the Lost VsSsel-Cspt
ThOrpS Brutal AcfOns-RsprOvsd BY His
Lower 0fReers-Ths Sole Sur
yiyOr's Account.

CHICAGO, November 4.-Edger A. Hall,
brother of the second engineer of the Yer
non, stated yesterday, that last June his
brother was in Chicago, he told him that
Captain Thorp, master of the Vernon, had
an attack of delirium tremens while on
top of the pilot house. Mr.. Hall was for
merly connected with the Northern Michi-
gan Line and was clerk of.propeller Cham
pion, until short time before she burned,
when he resigned to accept position as
bookkeeper with HanChett Bro No, 20 La
Sale street.
He also said that it ought to have been
we'll known 10 the officers OF the line
that Captain Thorp waS hard drinker,
and that he had often left port while
drunk. Mr.. Hall gave the name of prom
inent wholesale merchant, who recently
made trip on the Vernon, who had told
him that Captain Thorp was drunk during
the entire time he remained on the boat
The brother of Mrs. NJ. F. VanAmburgh
called at the Tribune Office last night and
said that his sister arrived in Chicago on
the Vernon September 3, accompanied by
Miss Addie Mickey of Waterloo, N. y.
The steamer was three days longer than
usual making the trip from Sheboygap,
and both ladies told him that the captain
was drunk all the time.
Alex. Stone, the only survivor of the
disaster, when asked if he ever saw Cap
tain Thorp drunk replied: ''The captain
was drunk most Of the time, and he was
very drunk when we left Sheboygan last
week. While they were coming through the
straights the second mate said to him:
Sober up, you drunken beast, and take
care of the boat and the people" The
captain told him to 20 to HI. |
was in the cabin at the time and
heard every word that was said. Friday
night, which was the night the steamer
was lost, the captain was as drunk as
ever saw him, and he kept taking drink
every little while from q bottle that he
carried in his coat pocket. guess that is
why the first mate staid on deck all of the
time. He knew that the captain was 80
drunk that he didn't hardly know what
he was about, and was probably afraid
the captain would do something foolish. If
the captain had been sober don't believe
the vessel would have been lost, for any
sober man would have turned back when
he saw how badly she acted in the big sea.
"The ordinary second mate of n passen-
ger steamer would hardly dare to use such
language TO the master as that Stone
ascribes to Captain Higgins, but the
latter was not an ordinary second
mate. Up TO n short time ago he
was in command of the steamer Leland,
and lost his position when the steamer
changed ownership. 1t is difficult to OBJ
tain command in the middle of the sea-
son, and, rather than remain idle, he
accepted the first berth that was offered
him In every sense he was careful and
skillful navigator, and if he had been in
command of the Vernon that night she
might now he afloat the water. The same
can be said of Capt. Sullivan, the first
mate, who had for many years commanded
some of the finest sailing vessels Oh the
lakes. The last time the Vernon was in
Chicago, Capt. Sullivan, speaking of the
scawOrthiness OF the steamer, remarked
that she was all right if properly loaded,
but added that she was being loaded deeper
than she ought to be.